Looking beyond glaciers to understand mountain water security

Abstract

PrefaceChanges in the mountain cryosphere impact on water security of downstream societies and resilience of water-dependent ecosystems and their services. However, assessing mountain water security still requires better understanding of the complex interaction between glacial meltwater and coupled humannatural systems. In this context, we call for a refocusing from glacio-hydrological monitoring and modelling to a more integrated social-ecological perspective of the wider catchment hydrology. This shift requires locally-relevant knowledge production strategies, and integrating of such knowledge into a collaborative science-policy-community framework. This approach, combined with hydrological risk assessment, can support the development of robust, locally tailored and transformational adaptation strategies.

Predicting Hydrological Change in an Alpine Glacierized Basin and Its Sensitivity to Landscape Evolution and Meteorological Forcings

“…This vegetation would also have a limited influence on the blowing snow transport, which would already be restricted due to the warmer snow conditions. While there is an ongoing need to improve the understanding and parametrization of individual processes, such as glacier evolution, this focus on individual processes must occur in concert with the understanding of the system and the connections between the processes (Aubry‐Wake, Bertoncini, & Pomeroy, 2022; Aubry‐Wake, Pradhananga, et al., 2022; Drenkhan et al., 2022; Somers et al., 2019). Reducing mountain hydrological changes to only glacier change, as is sometimes done with the peak water concept, might explain why this elusive regime shift is often not discernible in actual mountain streamflow (Stahl et al., 2021; van Tiel, Freudiger, et al., 2021).…”

GC Insights: Lessons from participatory water quality research in the upper Santa River basin, Peru

“…The lessons learned from this project offer important considerations for design of future community engagement for coproduction of knowledge and solutions around environmental issues. A shift away from heavy reliance on monitoring and modelling data and towards a more integrated approach, covering insights from both the natural and the social sciences, for environmental assessment is required for equitable and sustainable resource management (Drenkhan et al, 2023). Effective Researchers should recognise the temporal scale required for developing an understanding of place, stakeholder relationships, and building of community trust (Rangecroft et al, 2021).…”

“…Furthermore, water quality can be a secondary consideration to water quantity, despite being closely intertwined in water insecurity (Clason et al, 2023;Rangecroft et al, 2023). Water quality is a complex, multifaceted issue, which can be judged by indicators such as acidity, clarity, smell, taste, or chemical composition (Flotemersch and Aho, 2021).…”

“…colour, turbidity or litter), whereas others are "hidden" (e.g. heavy metal content) and typically only detectable by field or laboratory instrumentation and analysis (Flotemersch and Aho, 2021). Whilst water quality variables are often measured and monitored through methodologies commonly available in the natural sciences, local communities can provide unique information about the state of their ecosystem (Okumah et al, 2020, Richter et al, 2022.…”

Contribution of glaciers to water, energy and food security in mountain regions: current perspectives and future priorities

“…Proglacial lake evolution is another example of dynamic change in deglaciating mountain environments, with the growth of existing lakes, and appearance of new ones, offering both opportunities for water supply and energy generation and risks relating to flooding and cascading hazards (Haeberli and others, 2016). In managing both the risk and resource potential of proglacial waters, upstream-downstream relationships should be an important consideration for future research and policy, recognising the impact of storage and abstraction for stakeholders in the upper and lower reaches of glaciated catchments (Drenkhan and others, 2022).…”